Seat adjuster



July 26, 1938, f E. G. SIMPSON Er AL 2,124,754

SEAT ADJusTER Filed May 27. 1936 5 sheets-sheet 1 July 26, 1938. E. G.SIMPSON ET AL 2,124,754

SEAT ADJUSTER Filed May 27. 19:56 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 July 26, 1938. E. G.SIMPSON ET AL .2,124,754 I SEAT ADJUSTER Filed May 27. 1936 v 5Sheets-Sheet 3 [I j! ai J7 i4 /jn/mu, WM, r

l A ORNEYS July 26, i938. E. G. SIMPSON ETL 2,124,754

SEAT ADJUSTER Filed May 27. 1936 5 Sheets-$11861 4 l N VE NTOR ATTORNEYSJuly 26, 1938. E. G. SIMPSON ET ALk 2,124,754

SEAT ADJUSTER Filed May 27. 195e 5 sheet's-sheet 5 Patented July 26V,1938 UNlTED VSTATES PATENT OFFICE SEAT ADJ USTER Emory Glenn Simpson andAndrew Christian Andersen, assignors to Ternstedt Manufacturing Company,Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Y Application May 27, 1936,Serial No. 82,054

7 Claims.- (Cl. 155-88) This invention relates to a seat adjuster andgram supports generally designated 4, one of more particularly to a seatadjuster for adjusting which is positioned fore and aft of the vehiclean automotive vehicle seat upwardly and downbody adjacent one side ofthe seat and the other wardly. adjacent the other side of the seat (Fig.6). Since It is an object of this invention to produce a both of theseparallelogram supports are the same vehicle seat adjuster by means ofwhich the seat only one will be described. Each parallelogram can beconveniently and easily raised or lowered, support comprises a bottomrail 5 of channel either by the occupant of the seat or one who issection which is fixed to the floor by means of the not occupying theseat, to any position desired L brackets 6 and an upper rail l ofchannel within the range of adjustment. section. The top rail ispivotally supported ad- As a general rule the interior of a vehicle'bodyjacent each end on the bottom rail by a pair of is designed to give thegreatest space or room poslevers I and thus the top and bottom rails 'Iand sible for occupancy by the passengers and driver are at all timesparallel. The top rail l has as one of the elements contributing totheir bodily xed at each end a depending U shaped bracket comfort. It isalso an object of this invention to 8. Each bracket 8 is pivotallyconnected as at 9 to produce an adjuster for raising and lowering a alever IU which in turn is pivotally connected vehicle seat which iscompact and therefore well to the bottom rail 5 as at II. adapted forinstallation and operation within' an A pair of draft links in the formor rack bars automobile body within the limited amount of I2 and I3connect the levers I0. The rack. I2 has space which can be reasonablyallotte'dtov such one end pivotally connected to one of the levers adevice, I0 as at I4 and the other rack I3 has one of its In thedrawings: i ends connected to the other leverA I0 as at I5.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation showing the seat ad- Racks I2 and I3 meshwith driving gear I6 fixed juster with the seat raised. upon the drivingshaft I1. The driving shaft I1 Fig. 2 is also a side el-evation'showingtheseat is journaled in the support brackets IB, I9 and 20 lowered.which are fixed to the oor 3 of the vehicle body.

Fig. 3 is a section along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2. The racks I2 and I3are held in mesh with the Fig. 4 is a section along the line 4 4 ofFig. 1. gear I 6 by the inverted U shaped tie-down bracket Fig. 5 is asection along the line 5-5 of Fig. '1, 2l which is xed in the bottomrail 5 as at 22.

Fig. 6 is a section along the line 6--6 of Fig. 3 The seat bottom 2 hasbolted or otherwise sebut with the seat in raised position. curedthereto the plates 23, each of which has Fig. 7 is a detail of the pawland ratchet showriveted or otherwise fixed thereto a headed pin ing theposition of the parts when the adjuster is 24. These pnS 24 Sldablynterengago the top arranged for raising the seat and the lever has Tails7 in the elongated Slots 25 to permit fore reached the end of theelevating stroke. and aft sliding adjustment of the seat along Fig. 8 isa detail showing the position of the the top` Tails T. parts at thebeginning 0f a' lowering step, The seat frame 2 has xed thereto a plate26 Fig. 9 is a view similar to Fig. a 'showing the having a dependingflange 21. A pawl 28 having position of the parts as the seat islbeing'lowered a linger piece 29 iS Supported by moans of a Divot underthe control of the lever handle. pin 301113011 flange 27- The Plato 25iS also Pro- Fig. 10 is a View similar to Fig.v 9'but showing vided witha ange 3l having a Slot 32 through the position of the parts at the endof a lowering Which 'the DaWl 28 loloJ'eCtS and Swings. A rack step. 33is Xed to the depending side wall of the top Fig. 11 is a detail of thelatch forlatching the rail 1 and is arranged t0 be interengaeed by theseat against fore and aft adjustment. pawl 28 to latch the seat againstfore and aft Figs. 12 and 13 show a modified form of rack adjustmentalong the top rails 7- bar for transmitting the lifting torque to theThe lvertical upwardly and downwardly adjustparallelogram. Y ment of theseat is effected by means of a pawl Figs. 14, 15 and 16 show a secondmodified form and ratchet mechanism. The driving shaft I1 of rack barfor transmitting the lifting torquerto has a flattened end portion 34upon which is fixed the parallelogram. Y the ratchet 35. A handleportion 36 is riveted to Referring more particularly to the drawings abiiurcated lever 3l having the furcations 38 there is shown a vehicleseat cushion I having a and 3.'. which are rotatably mounted uponcylinbottom frame 2. The seat is supported on the drical portions of theshaft Il as at 43 and 4I. floor 3 of the vehicle body by a pair ofparallelo- A shifter plate 42 having the nger pieces 43 and 44 is alsorotatably mounted upon the cylindrical end portion 45 of the shaft I1'.The shifter plate 42, lever 31 and ratchet 35 are all held upon the endof the shaft by means of a washer 46 and screw 41 in the end of theshaft.

The ratchet is operated by a driving pawl 48 pivotally mounted by pin 49upon the lever 31. An overcenter acting type of coil spring 50 has oneend interengaged with a pin I carried by the pawl 48 and the other endengaged with the pin 44 on shifter plate 42. A dogging pawl 52 ispivotally mounted by means of the pin 53 upon a bracket 54 bolted orotherwise secured to the floor of the vehicle body. An over-centeracting type of coil spring 55 has one end secured to the pin 43 on theshifter plate 42 and the other end secured to the pin 56 carried by thepawl 52. The shifter plate 42 is provided with an inwardly turned stoplug 51 which swings between the stops 58 and 59 on the lever 31.

The operation of the device is as follows: When the seat is in loweredposition, as sho-wn in Fig. 2, and it is desired to raise the seat, theshifter plate 42 is either in, or shifted to, the position shown in Fig.'1 so that the stop lug 51 abuts the stop 59. At this time theover-center springs 50 and 55 urge both pawls 48 and 52 intointerengagement with the teeth of the ratchet 35. When the lever handle36 is raised, pawl 52 holds the ratchet 35 against clockwise movementand the pawl 48 rides clockwise along the teeth of the ratchet. On thedown stroke of the lever 31, pawl 48 interengages one of theteeth of theratchet and rotates it counter-clockwise. The downward movement of thehandle 35 may be arrested in any suitable fashion, such as when the pawl48 abuts the lug 68 on the plate I8. During the counter-clockwisemovement of the ratchet 35, the pawl 52 rides along the ratchet andsnaps from behind one ratchet tooth to behind the succeeding ratchet`tooth and holds the ratchet against turning whenever the lifting forceis removed from the handle 36. As the ratchet 35 turns in acounter-clockwise direction the shaft I1 and gears I5 move the rackdraft bars I2 and I3 to the left, Fig. 2, thereby swinging the levers I5in a counter-clockwise direction to elevate the seat.

To lower the seat the shifter plate 42 is manually swung clockwise tothe position shown in Figs. 8 to 10 with the stop lug 51 abutting stop58 on the lever 31. At this time the over-center springs urge both ofthe pawls 48 and 52 away from the ratchet 35. Spring 55 yieldably holdsthe pawl 52 against the stop lug 5I on the bracket 54 and spring 58,when the pawl 48 clears lug 6D (Fig. 10), yieldably holds the pin 5I,carried by pawl 48, against the circumference of the circular opening B2in the lever 31' which arrests the movement of the pawl 48 away from theratchet 35. If the handle 36 is now raised clockwise (Fig. the endportion 53 of the lever which overhangs the pawl 52 will engage the face84 of the pawl and cam it inwardly into engagement with the ratchet toprevent clockwise movement of the ratchet. If the lever is now swungdownwardly or counter-clockwise (as viewed in Fig. 8), the pawl 48strikes the lug 5i) which cams it into engagement with the ratchet 35.Further downward movement of the lever turns the ratchet 35 and permitspawl 52 to snap out'of engagement with the ratchet as shown in Fig. 8because the part 63 of the lever 31 is now swung out of engagement withpawl 52. This permits the seat to lower and the weight of the seat orthe combined weight of the seat and the occupant acting through thelevers I8, draft bars I2 and I3, gears I6, and shaft I1 rotates theratchet 35 in a clockwise direction, but this rotation and lowering ofthe seat are controlled by the operator through the lever 35, 31 asshown in Fig. 9. However, as soon as the ratchet 35 'rotatessufficiently far clockwise, preferably one tooth, under the control ofthe lever handle 36, the part 63 again cams pawl 52 into engagement withthe ratchet to arrest further rotation of the ratchet and furtherdownward movement of the scat until the handle 3E is again forced downcounter-clockwise to release the pawl 52 and the operation repeated asabove described.

During the raising and lowering of the seat the levers I0 swing aboutpivots II thereby causing pivots I4 and I5 to travel in an arc. Sincepivots I4 and I5 travel in an arc it follows that during the raising andlowering of the seat the racks I2 and I3 swing about the gears I6 asshown in the dotted lines, Fig. 6.

Instead of using two rack bars I2 and I3 to interconnect each set oflevers I5, a single rack bar 10 can be used as shown in Figs. l2 and 13to interconnect levers I0. This single rack bar is pivoted at each endto the levers IG as at 1I. In raising the seat from lowered position(shown in Fig. 12) to completely raised position (shown in Fig. 1), thepivot points 1I will rst travel upwardly until they are in verticalalignment with the pivot points II and then downwardly. This travel ofthe pivot points 1I during the raising of the seat rst raises the draftrack 10 and then lowers it with respect to the shaft I1 and gear I5. Tomaintain the rack meshed at all times during the raising and lowering ofthe seat with the gear I6 the rack teeth are formed in two arcs 12 and13. As shown in Fig. l2, the seat is lowered and gear I6 is meshed withthe rack at substantially the mid-point of the arc 12. As the seat israised the rack travels to the left, Fig. 12, along the gear I6 untilthe gear I5 reaches the high point 14 of the rack. As shown in Fig. 13the rack bar 1I) has nearly reached high point of its upward travel andat this time the gear I6 meshes with the rack substantially at thejunction or high point 14 of the two arcs 12 and 13. Further upwardmovement of the seat from the position shown in Fig. 3 will cause therack bar 1D to lower and the gear I6 will travel from the position shownin Fig. 13 to substantially the mid-point of the arc 13.

In Figs. 14 to 16 there is shown a second modified form of rack bar. Inthis construction the levers Ill are connected by a straight rack bar 80having teeth 8| which engage the gear I6 beneath the shaft I1. Rack 80is pivoted to lever Ill at one end as at 82 and the other end of thepivot is connected as at 83 to one end of a link 84. The other end ofthe link 84 is pivotally conencted to the lever I0 as at 85. The rack 8|is held in mesh with the gear I5 by the projection 86 which is stampedor formed upwardly from the plate 81. The plate 81 supports the brackets88 which support the pins I I upon which the levers I0 are pivoted. Thisarrangement permits the rack 80 to swing about the gear I G as shown inFigs. 14 and l5 during the raising and lowering of the seat.

We claim:

1. In an automotive vehicle body, a seat adjuster for raising andlowering a vehicle seat comprising a pair of levers positioned in spacedrelation one behind the other for supporting the seat, each lever havingone end pivotally connected to the seat and the other end pivotallyconnected to the floor of the vehiclebody, a rotatable shaft mountedupon the floor VVof the Vehicle body between the said levers, a gearfxedto the said shaft, a rack-bar meshed with the said gear and pivotallyconnected to one of said levers between the pivoted ends of the saidlever, a Ylever operatively connected to the said shaft for turning thesame to raise the seat, and means for latching the said shaft and gearagainst rotation.

2. In an automotive vehicle body, a seat `adjuster for raising andlowering a vehicle seat comprising a pair of levers positioned in spacedrelation one behind the other for supporting vthe seat, each leverhaving one end pivotally connected to the seat and the other endpivotally connected to the floor of the vehicle body, a rotatable shaftmounted upon the floor of the vehicle' body between the said levers, agear fixed to the said shaft, rack means meshed with the said gear onthe shaft and pivotally connected to both of the said levers between thepivoted ends of each of the levers to interconnect the said two levers,a lever operatively connected to the said shaft for turning the same toraise the seat, and means for latching the said shaft and gear againstrotation.

3. In an automotive vehicle body, a seat adjuster for raising andlowering a vehicle seat comprising a pair `of levers positioned inspaced relation one behind the other for supporting the seat, each leverhaving one end pivotally connected to the seat and the other endpivotally connected to the floor of the Vehicle body, a rotatable shaftmounted upon the floor of the vehicle body between the said levers, agear fixed to the said shaft, a rack bar meshed with the said gear andpivotally connected to one of said levers between the pivoted ends ofthe said lever, a lever operatively connected to the said shaft forturning the same to raise the seat, means for latching the said shaftand gear against rotation, and tie down means for holding the rack barin mesh with the said gear.

4. In an automotive vehicle body, a seat adjuster for raising andlowering a vehicle seat comprising an extensible support secured to theseat and the floor of the vehicle body and adapted to be raised andlowered in the raising and lowering of the said seat, a rotatable shaftand a gear fixed on the said shaft, a bearing support for the said shaftmounted on the floor of the vehicle, a lever handle freely rotatablymounted 0n the said shaft, a ratchet fixed on the said shaft, a pawlpivotally mounted on the said lever handle and a pawl pivotallysupported on the oor of the vehicle, a shiftable plate and a pair ofover-center springs interconnecting the said shifter plate and the saidpawls whereby the said shifter plate can be shifted so that theovercenter springs throw both of the said pawls into engagement with thesaid ratchet so that the lever handle can be swung to rotate said shaftand gear, and means operatively connecting said gear and extensiblesupport whereby when the lever handle is swung to rotate said shaft andgear the said seat is raised or lowered.

5. In an automotive vehicle body, a seat adjuster for raising andlowering a vehicle seat comprising an extensible support secured to theseat and the floor of the vehicle body and adapted to be raised andlowered in the raising and lowering of the said seat, a rotatable shaftand shifter plate and the said pawls, a pair of stops carried by thesaid lever handle for limiting the shifting movement on the saidshiftable plate whereby the said plate can be shifted into engagementwith one of the said stops to cause the over-center springs to throw thepawls into engagement with the ratchet to permit operation of the leverhandle to rotate said shaft and gear in one direction to raise the seatand shifted against the other of said stops to cause Ythe overcentersprings to urge the pawls out of vengagement with the ratchet to permitloperation of the lever handle to rotate said shaft and gear in theopposite direction to lower the said seat, and means operativelyconnecting said gear and extensible support whereby when the leverhandle` is swung to rotate said shaft and gear the said seat is raisedor lowered.

6. In an automotive vehicle body, a seat adjuster for raising andlowering a vehicle seat comprising an extensible support secured to theseat and the floor of the vehicle body and adapted to be raised andlowered in the raising and lowering of the said seat, a rotatable shaftand a gear fixed on the said shaft, a bearing support for the said shaftmounted on the oor of the vehicle, a lever handle freely rotatablymounted on the said shaft, a ratchet fixed on the said shaft, a pawlpivotally mounted on the said lever handle and a pawl pivotallysupported on the floor of the vehicle, a shiftable plate and a pair ofover-center springs interconnecting the said shifter plate and the saidpawls, a pair of stops carried by the said lever handle for limiting theshifting movement on the said shiftable plate whereby the said plate canbe shifted into engagement with one of the said stops to cause theover-center springs to throw the pawls into engagement with the ratchetto permit operation of the lever handle to rotate said shaft and gear inone direction to raise the seat and shifted against the other of saidsto-ps to cause the overcenter springs to urge the pawls out ofengagement with the ratchet to permit operation of the lever handle torotate said shaft and gear inthe opposite direction to lower the saidseat, and a pair of stops against which the pawls abut when the plate isshifted over center and the springs yieldably urge the said pawls awayfrom the said ratchet, and means operatively connecting said gear andextensible supportwhereby when the lever handle is swung to rotate saidshaft and gear the said seat is raised or lowered.

7. In an automotive vehicle body, a seat adjuster for raising andlowering a vehicle seat comprising an extensible support secured to theseat and the floor of the vehicle body and adapted to be raised andlowered in the raising and lowering of the said seat, a rotatable shaftand a gear fixed on the said shaft, a bearing support for the said shaftmounted on the licor of the vehicle, a lever handle freely rotatablymounted on the said shaft, a ratchet fixed on the said shaft, a pawlpivotally mounted on the said lever handle and a pawl pivotallysupported on the floor of the vehicle, a shiftable plate and a pair ofover-center springs interconnecting the said shifter plate and the saidpawlsa pair of stops carried by the said lever handle for limiting theshifting movement on the said shiftable plate whereby the said plate canbe shifted into en gagement with one of the said stops to cause theover-center springs to throw the pawls into engagement with the ratchetto permit operation of the lever handle to rotate said shaft and gear inone direction to raise the seat and shifted against the other of saidstops to cause the over-center springs to urge the pawls out ofengagement with the ratchet to permit operation of the lever handle torotate said shaft and gear in the opposite direction to lower the saidseat, a pair of stops supported on the said lever handle and flooragainst which the pawls abut When the plate is shifted over center andthe springs yieldably urge the said pawls away from the said ratchet,and a pair of cams one of which is supported on the floor of the vehicleand the other of which is carried bythe said lever whereby to lower thesaid seat the one cam is slidably engaged by the pawl carried by thesaid lever as the lever is turned in one direction to throw the sameinto engagement with the said ratchet to disengage the other pawl topermit the lowering of the seat under the control of the lever handleand whereby the other cam as the lever is turned in the oppositedirection slidably engages the other pawl to throw the same intoengagement with the ratchet to terminate a lowering step and hold theseat against further lowering until the lever handle can be returned tothe initial position to repeat the lowering-step, and

means operatively connecting said gear and ex-

